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Dive Against Debris at Thousand Islands, Jakarta Bay (1-2 Sep 2012)

On 1 & 2 September 2012 we have successfully conducted a series of Dive Against Debris at the Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands) area of the Jakarta Bay. There were 20 people altogether, out of which 14 were divers joining the dives while the rest did their part at the beach. Among the divers, there was Ms. Farah Zesa, the second runner-up of Miss Scuba Indonesia (www.missscubaindonesia.com) joining the party.

Original Event

We chose the Thousand Islands area since we have been constantly monitoring the area for debris, coral health and coverage, and trying to locate sharks presents. This was our fourth Project Aware underwater cleanup since 2009.

On day #1, we conducted two dives. The first one was at Pulau Matahari (Sun Island). At this point we found that the underwater environment was clean of new debris. There were items that used to be debris like tyres, bottles and some cables, but these material now has become a new home for some creatures. So we did not pick up any debris, hence we did some data recording on the debris that were not picked-up as explained in the Aware's Dive Against Debris manual.

The second dive was done at Pulau Kotok Kecil. Here we collected some debris, mainly fishing line, lure and a plastic detergent container.

On day #2 we dived at the Tabularasa wreck and conducted marine debris survey. Here we found a weight belt which maybe ditched by a diver.

We end the survey dives with dive #4 at a point called the APL which is located east to Pulau Pramuka. At this area we can see transplanted acropora corals. Great news! No debris were found! :)

Before our last dive, during surface interval we did a coral transplantation with the whole group. All of the participants were having fun planting coral seedlings on the transplantation rack, and then bringing the newly transplanted corals into the water.

Thank you to all participants that have taken part in our dive against debris. See you all at our next Aware actions!